Richard Gephardt: “I urge a ``no'' vote on the conference report, and I urge an ``aye'' vote on the Rangel motion to recommit. I believe…”

“I urge a ``no'' vote on the conference report, and I urge an ``aye'' vote on the Rangel motion to recommit. I believe with all my heart that this issue, education and child rearing, is the most important issue that faces us as a people. We have never needed more in our history to have well-educated, mentally capable young people. In my home State of Missouri, the only issue that really dominated the State legislature was how we could go from 30,000 to 60,000 prison cells over the next 5 years, a symbol of failure of our child rearing and our education system in this country. I am tough on law and order and so are my constituents. But I say to my constituents, you cannot afford what we are doing. We cannot afford to hold a million and a half people in prison, to carry them, to keep them because they are unsafe to have in our society. We also know that if we raise children correctly, they will not get into trouble. They will not be dysfunctional citizens. But we also know our society has changed dramatically. People are not at home to raise children as they once were. That is a fact of life. We are not going to change that. And so we have to put the investment into education so that children are raised correctly. What this bill misses entirely is that there is a whole revolution going on out in public schools to fix the schools to meet the need. In my district, I have a school in the inner city that is getting great results. The kids get great grades.…”